lemon madeleines

hello again! i'm sorry for not posting anything lately.. i have some excuses though. hoho.

reason number 1: is because i'm not in the mood for baking in the first week of June, i did go to the kitchen but for cooking, i made hakau with a little modification but it's still not really worth to report. haha. i'll try again later with a better shape.

reason number 2: to be honest, until now - the minutes i write this post - i still unable to make muffins. my muffins never rise. so by the 2nd week of June, i was practicing about making proper muffins. result is still F for fail. i am giving up for now until the end of this month and i'll try again next month.

and now, i'm back! yay! i made madeleine today.. why? because i just found and bought a cheap madeleine mold. i quickly grabbed it when i saw it. hoho. in the madeleine mold's shop i also found many many cute friendly-price props and i'm letting my self to buy them. see the red-heart saucer above? that's new! hehe.

madeleine, according to wikipedia, is a traditional small cake form Commercy and Liverdun, two communes of the Lorraine Region in northeastern France. madeleines are very small sponge cakes, with a distinctive shell-shaped depressions. aside from the traditional moulded pan, commonly found in stores specialising in kitchen equipment and even hardware stores, no special tools are required to make madeleines. a genoise cake batter is used. the flavor is similar to, but somewhat lighter than, sponge cake.  i have been interested with this cake since i first read and saw it in Kitchen Princess comic book. they look cute and thankfully i have recipes of various madeleines in my golden cookbook. so i decided to make one of them, the lemon and lime madeleines..

Lemon and Lime Madeleines
from The Golden Book of Patisserie
makes: 12 madeleines

3/4 cup self rising flour
1/3 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup superfine caster sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1.5 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1.5 tsp finely grated lime zest
confectioners' sugar, to dust

direction:

1. preheat the oven to 375 deg F. butter and flour a 12-cup madeleine pan.
2. combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl, set aside. beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until tripled in volume and very thick, about 5 minutes.
3. use a large rubber spatula to fold in the dry ingredients, melted butter, and lemon and lime zests until just blended.
4. spoon tablespoons of the batter into the prepared pan. bake for 11-13 minutes or until golden brown and firm to touch.
5. turn the madeleines out onto racks. dust with the confectioners' sugar. serve warm or at room temperature.

what happened in my kitchen?

• i substituted self-rising flour with all purpose flour and baking powder, the ratio is 2 cups all purpose flour by 1 tbsp baking powder. so for this recipe, the substitutions are 3/4 cup all purpose flour plus 1/2 tsp baking powder.
• i made half recipe which could make about 8 madeleines with my madeleine mold, i guess some madeleine molds can differ in volume.
• i didn't use lime zest, lemon zest is all i used. just omit the lime zest and add more lemon zest with the same amounts as the lime.

that's all for today, hope i'll be back soon.. by the way, madeleines are delicious! it's good to accompany your afternoon.
thanks for reading, have a good day! :)